Dublin life & culture.

Street Stories Festival.

The Stoneybatter and Smithfield People’s History Project are doing wonderful work in Dublin 7 promoting both the history of the area and broader Dublin history. After many months of planning and fundraising, they have now announced their ‘Street Stories Festival’ for September. The Facebook page is here.

Running over a full weekend, there will be talks, gigs, walking tours and more from September 26 to 28. The Friday night event, with the photographer David Jazay, should appeal to many. His great pictures of Dublin in the 1980s and 90s include many shots of Dublin 7, an area which has changed greatly in recent times:

The event will kick off on Friday night with a talk by David Jazay on his photographic story of inner city Dublin in the 1980s and ’90shttp://davidjazay.com/?page_id=2. This will be followed by a music session in the Cobblestone.

On Saturday we have talks throughout the day on a wide range of subjects from the Mother and Baby homes, to Dublin in World War I, from Life in Medieval Smithfield to the Massacre in North King Street during the 1916 Rising and lots more.

Saturday night will see Dublin’s favourite ska/reggae band The Bionic Rats rocking the Back Room of the Cobblestone, after which we will keep the dancing going with some guest DJs.

Sunday will be a relaxed day of walking tours and film showings.

On Good Friday I did a fundraising walking tour of Smithfield and the area around it for this festival. There have since been other walking tours examining women’s history in revolutionary Ireland and the 1798 connections of Dublin 7 and its environs. John Gibney of History Ireland, and author of an excellent biography of 1916 leader Sean Heuston, will be giving a walking tour on August 9th for this good cause: